Yeah, I get that it's hard to figure out who your fans are when the third-party retailers are the ones with the data. But that shouldn't stop designers from being able to find other ways to connect with their fans when the wholesale thing stops working out. It's just kind of disappointing to see designers throw their hands up when the internet has given them the possibility for so many other business models.

Then again, Plokhov probably isn't out of the game entirely. He's not Michael J Krell

Just needed a place to vent - I'm selling a RO jacket on gr@iled and got a crazy lowball offer with an accompanying message:"ay dude come on its the holidays im even sellin some grails for cheap just for the sake of xmas"

What he is currently selling: Supreme box hoodie for $360 (dropped from $400), Supreme floral hoodie for $495 (dropped from $550). I should give this guy a break, right? For the spirit of Christmas!

If you are post on this site, yeah I'm putting you on blast

relevant: the complex series on supreme resellers was really interesting. not a super well done documentary but still an interesting glimpse into the culture.

^yea the golden era is gone and consistent hip hop artists basically no longer exist BUT brand whoring was definitely a big thing in the glory days of hip hop. The lo life crew style being one prime example. These dudes all rapped about brands, some of them high end and some more authentic and true to their upbringings. Carhart, Kangol or more underground brands like triple5soul are spread through all of the great raps of the 90s

Nonsense
(unless you meant consistent strictly regarding fashion/style in which case I'm less inclined to disagree)

nah bro, i mean consistently good rappers, compared to the 90s there are basically none. That said, I like a lot of new artists, but few of them are consistently good. They'll make some great tracks that hint at the real sound and then a few months later release some garbage drake/migos type hype song, not that that shit isn't fun, it just isn't good. But hey you're kind of young so you maybe didn't grow up with a plethora of consistently good rappers who have nearly all fallen off by now, and exist to perform tracks they made at least a decade ago. Damn, it sucks to sound jaded about something as beautiful as music, but hip hop simply peaked in the 90s (some early 2000s) and prob won't ever come back.

nah bro, i mean consistently good rappers, compared to the 90s there are basically none. That said, I like a lot of new artists, but few of them are consistently good. They'll make some great tracks that hint at the real sound and then a few months later release some garbage drake/migos type hype song, not that that shit isn't fun, it just isn't good. But hey you're kind of young so you maybe didn't grow up with a plethora of consistently good rappers who have nearly all fallen off by now, and exist to perform tracks they made at least a decade ago. Damn, it sucks to sound jaded about something as beautiful as music, but hip hop simply peaked in the 90s (some early 2000s) and prob won't ever come back.

Ah yes compared to the 90s I guess you're right, it was just the original phrasing of none at all that irked me

(seeing how there are several consistently great ones like Kendrick Lamar, Mick Jenkins, Chance the Rapper and Run the Jewels, but it's probably true 5 guys isn't much compared to 20 years ago)

That was my point. Nothing interesting or original going on now just some role models and their sheep.

I actually think hip hop fashion is way more interesting now than it was in the late 90s. Early 90s was maybe a different story.

Agree with Rage above -- hip hop has always had a ton of brand whoring.

The biggest difference is that, in prior to the mid-90s or so, you had kids taking labels that were never meant for them and appropriating the stuff for different purposes. Polo was never meant for poor Black and Latino kids in inner cities. It was meant for middle- to upper middle class white kids (generally speaking). Taking Polo and turning it into a streetwear brand was kind of special -- same story with Nautica, Adidas, Tommy Hill, etc.

Then starting in like 93 or so, you had the creation of streetwear brands specifically targeted at hip hop listeners. So Echo, Triple Five Soul, Conart, Staple, Charizmatik, etc. It was kind of cool to see clothes come out of that culture, but there was also something lost -- the kind of creativity needed to reinterpret clothes. Ads started coming out with graffiti in the backgroiund or whatever. Basically companies saying "we designed this for you, and this is how you should wear it." By the late 90s, massive corporations got into the game. It wasn't even about streetwear guys making clothes for other streetwear guys. It was just about huge corporate boardrooms figuring out how they could control this market.

Now it's back to appropriation. Margiela, Rick Owens, Raf, etc. Basically kids taking clothes that aren't specifically meant for them and turning it into their thing.

I hate these backpack type fake rap lovers that talk about how shit rap is nowadays compared to the 90s. Rap is still alive. Tons of crazy good stuff out there. Even the OGs are still around making music. You haven't even bothered to look. You just see Migos and Drake on TV and think "see. All rap is shit now"

I hate these backpack type fake rap lovers that talk about how shit rap is nowadays compared to the 90s. Rap is still alive. Tons of crazy good stuff out there. Even the OGs are still around making music. You haven't even bothered to look. You just see Migos and Drake on TV and think "see. All rap is shit now"

fwiw i know what you mean, and i wasn't saying its all shit now, just that I think it peaked and thats most likely due to my own nostalgia

I can also see where you're coming from but respectfully disagree. I don't think rap has peaked. There's so much variation in style now than ever before. Most just don't get a lot of exposure because instead of 15, 20 some crews getting promoted on yomtvraps on national television you have 15, 20 turnt up type rappers getting promoted on TV while everybody else has to market themselves online and in niche radio shows.

I'm tainted with nostalgia too. I also recently went on a guru/premier/gangstarr and dilla/slum village binge. Premier is still around making hot beats tho and slum village also recently made a new album using some of dilla's unreleased beats. It's still going on. I still like a lot of the new crews tho cuz I think a lot of the young'ns bring this kind of vibrancy and energy that the OGs don't always bring